Fennesz - The Black Sea

Austrian electronic musician Fennesz is arguably one of the most famous glitch-tronic artists, who has, combining guitars with laptop, created compositions where one can discern melodic beauty under the layers of clicks and cuts and white noise. It is the re-contextualization of melody under the digitally manipulated noise that made Endless Summer (2001) as one of the undisputed classics of the decade. This opus sounded like a pop album for the experimental electronica crowd. Even though the new album still features guitar as an easily recognizable element, The Black Sea is more ambient in nature. The pieces are longer, three of them over eight minutes. They, particularly the ten-minute title track, seem almost classical in construction. The album closer "Saffron Revolution" sounds quite transcendent. Not exactly the best Fennesz album, but nonetheless Fennesz has flair in his field.